Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain is an American actress and producer, known for starring as strong-willed women in feminist-themed films. Her highest grossing films are The Martian (2015) and It: Chapter Two (2019), in which she portrayed the adult counterpart of Beverly Marsh. History Early Life Chastain first developed an interest in acting at the age of seven, after her grandmother took her to a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She would regularly put on amateur shows with other children, and considered herself to be their artistic director. As a student at the El Camino Fundamental High School in Sacramento, Chastain struggled academically. She was a loner and considered herself a misfit in school, eventually finding an outlet in the performing arts. She has described how she used to miss school to read Shakespeare, whose plays she became enamored with after attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with her classmates. With too many absences during her senior year in school, Chastain did not qualify for graduation, but later obtained an adult diploma. She later attended Sacramento City College from 1996 to 1997, during which she was a member of the institution's debate team. Speaking about her early childhood, Chastain has said: I up with a single mother who worked very hard to put food on our table. We did not have money. There were many nights when we had to go to sleep without eating. It was a very difficult upbringing. Things weren't easy for me growing up. In 1998, Chastain finished her education at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her professional stage debut as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet staged by TheatreWorks, a company in the San Francisco Bay Area. The production led her to audition for the Juilliard School in New York City, where she was soon accepted and granted a scholarship funded by the actor Robin Williams. In her first year at the school, Chastain suffered from anxiety and was worried about being dropped from the program, spending most of her time reading and watching movies. She later remarked that her participation in a successful production of The Seagull during her second year helped build her confidence. She graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003. Career Shortly before graduating from Juilliard, Chastain attended an event for final-year students in Los Angeles, where she was signed to a talent holding deal by the television producer John Wells. She relocated to Los Angeles, and started auditioning for jobs. She initially found the process difficult, which she believed was due to other people finding her difficult to categorize as a redhead with an unconventional look. In her television debut, The WB network's 2004 pilot remake of the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, she was cast as Carolyn Stoddard. The pilot was directed by P. J. Hogan, but the series was never picked up for broadcast. Later that year, she appeared as a guest performer on the medical drama series ER playing a woman she described as "psychotic", which led to her getting more unusual parts such as accident victims or the mentally ill. She went on to appear in such roles in a few other television series from 2004 to 2007, including Veronica Mars (2004), Close to Home (2006), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard_(2006_film) Blackbeard] (2006), and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005–2006). Chastain made her film debut in 2008 as the title character in Dan Ireland's drama Jolene, based on a short story by E. L. Doctorow inspired by Dolly Parton's song "Jolene". It follows the life of a sexually abused teenager over the course of a decade. Chastain's performance was praised by a reviewer for the New York Observer, who considered her as the only notable aspect of the production. She won a Best Actress award at the Seattle International Film Festival. In 2009, she had a minor role in Stolen (2009), a mystery-thriller film with a limited theatrical release. Also in 2009, she played the part of Desdemona in The Public Theatre production of Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, co-starring John Ortiz as the title character and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago. Writing for The New Yorker, Hilton Als commended Chastain for finding "a beautiful maternal depth" in her role. In 2010, Chastain starred in John Madden's dramatic thriller The Debt, portraying a young Mossad agent sent to East Berlin in the 1960s to capture a former Nazi doctor who carried out medical experiments in concentration camps. She shared her role with Helen Mirren, with the two actresses portraying the character at different phases of her life. They worked together before filming to perfect the voice and mannerisms of the character and make them consistent. Chastain took classes in German and krav maga, and studied books about the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Mossad history. William Thomas of Empire termed the film a "smart, tense, well-acted thriller", and noted that Chastain "pulses with strength and vulnerability" in her part. She also appeared as Mary Debenham in an episode of the British television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, based on Agatha Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express. Chastain appeared in three films in 2014. She played the eponymous protagonist in Miss Julie, a film adaptation of August Strindberg's 1888 play of the same name, from director Liv Ullmann. It tells the tragic tale of a sexually repressed Anglo-Irish aristocrat who wishes to sleep with her father's valet (played by Colin Farrell). Chastain was attracted to Ullmann's feminist take on the subject. The film only received a limited theatrical release. While filming Miss Julie in Ireland, Chastain received the script of Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar (2014). With a budget of $165 million, the high-profile production, co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, was filmed mostly using IMAX cameras. Chastain was cast as the adult daughter of McConaughey's character; she was drawn to the project for the emotional heft she found in the father-daughter pair. Drew McWeeny of the entertainment website HitFix took note of how much Chastain stood out in her supporting part. The film earned over $675 million worldwide to become Chastain's highest-grossing live-action film. In 2015, Chastain took on the part of a commander in Ridley Scott's science fiction film The Martian. Starring Matt Damon as a botanist who is stranded on Mars by a team of astronauts commanded by Chastain's character, the film is based on Andy Weir's novel of the same name. Chastain met with astronauts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johnson Space Center, and based her role on Tracy Caldwell Dyson, with whom she spent time in Houston. The Martian became her second film to earn over $600 million in two consecutive years. Chastain next starred as a woman who plots with her brother (played by Tom Hiddleston) to terrorize his new bride (played by Mia Wasikowska) in Guillermo del Toro's gothic romance Crimson Peak. She approached the villainous part with empathy, and in preparation read graveyard poetry and watched the films Rebecca (1940) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Del Toro cast her to lend accessibility to a part he considered "psychopathic", but Peter Debruge of Variety found her "alarmingly miscast" and criticized her for failing to effectively convey her character's insecurity and ruthlessness. Conversely, David Sims of Slate praised her for portraying her character's "jealous intensity to the hilt". After portraying a series of intense roles, Chastain actively looked for a light-hearted part.[107] She found it in the ensemble fantasy film The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), which served as both a sequel and a prequel to the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman. She was drawn to the idea of playing a female warrior whose abilities were on par with those of the lead male character, but the film was poorly received.[107][108][109] She then starred as the title character, a lobbyist, in the political thriller Miss Sloane, which re-united her with John Madden.[107][110] Chastain read the novel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Punishment_(book) Capitol Punishment] by Jack Abramoff to research the practice of lobbying in America, and met with female lobbyists to study their mannerisms and sense of style.[111] Hailing her as one of the best actresses on the planet, Peter Travers commended Chastain for successfully drawing the audience into Sloane's life, and writing for Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang called her performance "a tour de force of rhetorical precision and tightly coiled emotional intensity".[112][113] Chastain received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance.[114] Chastain portrayed Molly Bloom, a former skier who ran a high-profile gambling operation that led to her arrest by the FBI, in Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut, Molly's Game (2017). She accepted the part due to her desire to work with Sorkin, whose writing she admired.[122] Instead of relying on Bloom's public persona, Chastain met Bloom to explore her character's flaws and vulnerabilities. She also researched the world of underground poker and interviewed some of Bloom's customers.[122] Peter Debruge hailed her role as "one of the screen's great female parts" and credited its success to both Chastain's "stratospheric talent" and Sorkin's script. She received her fifth Golden Globe nomination for it.[124] In 2018, she hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and voiced the virtual reality production Spheres: Songs of Spacetime. She had filmed a part in Xavier Dolan's ensemble drama The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, but her role was cut during post-production as Dolan found her character to be incompatible to the story. Chastain next agreed to play an evil alien in the superhero film Dark Phoenix (2019), which marked the twelfth installment in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(film) X-Men film series], due to its focus on female characters. The critic Peter Bradshaw considered it to be "a waste of her talents", and the film registered poor box office returns. In It Chapter Two, a sequel to the 2017 horror film It, based on Stephen King's novel, she played the adult Beverly Marsh (a woman in an abusive marriage), sharing the role with Sophia Lillis. Filming was challenging for Chastain, as director Andy Muschietti preferred the use of practical effects over CGI; one particular scene required her to be covered in 4,500 gallons of fake blood. It received generally favorable reviews, with Charlotte O'Sullivan of Evening Standard finding her to be "suitably sad and sepulchral" in her part. The film earned over $470 million worldwide. Personal Life Despite significant media attention, Chastain remains guarded about her personal life, and chooses not to attend red carpet events with a partner. She considers herself to be a "shy" person, and in 2011 said that she enjoys domestic routines like dog-walking and playing ukulele, rather than partying. She has cited the actress Isabelle Huppert as an influence, for managing a family, while also playing "out-there roles" in film. Chastain is an animal lover, and has adopted a rescue dog. She was a pescatarian for much of her life; following health troubles she began practicing veganism. She is an investor for Beyond Meat, a meat substitutes company. In the 2000s, Chastain was in a long-term relationship with writer-director Ned Benson that ended in 2010. In 2012, she began dating Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, an Italian count of the Passi de Preposulo noble family, who is an executive for the fashion brand Moncler. On June 10, 2017, she married Preposulo at his family's estate in Carbonera, Italy. In 2018, the couple had a daughter through surrogacy. They live in New York City. Roles samantha-laforche.png|Samantha Laforche Take Shelter Filmography Television Stage Music video Virtual reality Category:People Category:Females Category:Actresses Category:1970s births Category:Living people Category:Producers Category:Humans Category:Americans Category:1977 births Category:American Actresses Category:People from California